In training: Another long walk

As part of our training for the London to Brighton 100K Trek, we have been stepping up the distance walks in preparation for the endurance challenge facing us next month.

It's all in aid of the British Heart Foundation - and this blog is about the walk, the training and the fundraising.

Walking the North Downs Way

The North Downs Way national trail has featured in a few of our training walks already and we previously reached as far as Guildford in the westerly direction. The final length of the trail is about 10 miles farther west to Farnham. This means we've done all of the North Downs Way between Guildford and Hollingbourne, with the Guildford-Farnham part still to finish in the west, and from Hollingbourne-Dover still to cover in the south east.

24 May 2015

We jumped on a train from London Waterloo to Guildford where we followed the River along the route which will be part of the actual London to Brighton Trek on the 27th June. Where this meets the North Downs Way we turned off the river path and headed in the direction of Farnham.

The first 12 miles to Farnham took us through bluebell woods (pictured above) and sandy lanes. At Farnham station we switched from the North Downs Way to a combination of local walks heading for MOD land, eventually ending in Fleet, another 14 miles further.

Danger signs and suspicious objects on MOD land near Aldershot and Farnborough.

When we got to Fleet Pond nature reserve we realised a train from Fleet back to London Waterloo was due in the next 5 minutes so we finished our 26 mile walk with a light jog, followed by a more serious run when we spotted the train was on the other platform and we needed to run over the footbridge to get to it!

Today's walk has almost very nearly coincided with part of the route we walked on our first charity walk adventure from London to Devon, where we followed the Three Castles Path for 3 of the days. We are planning a future walk to join up the end of this walk from Fleet, heading to Winchfield and the Basingstoke canal. But that's for another time!

Here are a few more photos from this walk:

2 Walk To Land's End badges

Sponsor our walk and you'll receive one of these unique, handmade, limited edition... BADGES!

Masses of thanks to Karen and Rupert for making and sending the badges.

Sponsorship page and social networks

We've set up a Virgin Money Giving page to collect sponsorship donations for the charities.  It's at uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/WalkLandsEnd

Click on the website images to open in a new tab/window:

Sponsorship Page:

If you use Facebook and Twitter we're on both under the username 2WalkTo. We'll post updates from the walk, photos, and progress on here as well...

Facebook:

Twitter: 

Front Page News

Oooh, look, we made the front page of the Totnes Times with our little walking adventure.

Totnes Times 17 April 2013

* Donate to the charities via uk.virginmoneygiving.com/walktotnes

Day 12: Dawlish to Totnes

We started the final day walking along the sea wall by the railway line from Dawlish.

We had to dodge a few waves in places because the tide was high and crashing against the wall.

On the other side of the tracks repair and clearance work was being carried out on the cliffs where there had been recent landslides onto the railway.

We left the South West Coast Path at Teignmouth and came inland up the Teign estuary towards Combeinteignhead (great name!) 

We were soon in familiar territory, crossing the lush green rolling hills that are so characteristic of the area.

We had lunch in Kingskerswell and met our friend Dan who joined us to walk the final 10 miles.

As the day went on the temperature dropped and it attempted to snow. We have seen all four seasons in the past four days!

As we passed Berry Pomeroy castle and we saw a sign saying only 3 miles to Totnes the reality that our long walk was about to come to an end suddenly hit us. What would happen when all of this is over?

Totnes stayed tucked out of sight until the last moment. We finally spotted our destination about half a mile away at the top of the final path descending into the town.

London to Totnes
250 miles - 12 days
Completed!

We spent the evening in the pub meeting amazing supporters and sponsors and we were really touched by all the messages, comments and stories about what the charities mean to all of you.

Totnes arrival finish line plans

It's our penultimate day. Tomorrow we land in Totnes! 

Invitation.

If you would like to join us for some celebratory drinks in Totnes tomorrow evening, check our Facebook page for details. We should be arriving by about 6pm, but will post an update tomorrow.

Hope to see you there!

Day 6: Salisbury to Berwick St John.

Half way to Totnes!

We left Salisbury after a fairly leisurely start. We climbed the hill out of the city and picked up the Shaftesbury Drove. It was virtually a straight line along the ridge from here all the way to Berwick St John.

The pictures don't do it justice, but the views from up there were stunning in many places. The sun was in and out all day - when it was out it was really OUT.

At the end of the walk our fantastic CouchSurfing hosts Roz, Richard and Algy met us and took us to their house and made us a delicious meal. The best part of this trip has been the wonderful people we have met along the way. Everyone has really rallied round and gone out of their way to help us.

If you are not familiar with the CouchSurfing project it is well worth getting involved, either as a "surfer" or as a host - see www.couchsurfing.com for more info.

Next stop, we push onwards into Dorset!

Day 4: Alresford to Kings Somborne

We walked the remaining part of the Three Castles Path to Winchester then onwards along the Clarendon Way to the village of Kings Somborne.

In Winchester the end of the Three Castles Path is the Great Hall (last remaining part of the old castle) with its famous round table.

We were presented with a seal of completion for getting to the end of the path and a set of postcards of scenes from along the route - a nice surprise we weren't expecting. We'll do something with the postcards - we'll send you a thank you letter for supporting our walk.

Later on,  after reaching Kings Somborne we had another surprise - a very kind donation from a couple who saw our Macmillan and RMH Bristol t-shirts and got talking about the walk. So thank you Mr and Mrs Read.

We were mentioned in community magazine "Beyond Bude' today - you can read the article here: http://budeandbeyond.co.uk/it-would-be-quicker-to-walk/ Thanks to Jenny.

Another mention has to go to super star Dan for hosting us tonight and letting us couchsurf.

Possibly the biggest news of the day is that Zoe Konez has released a 3-track EP inspired by the walk. She's putting it out on a pay-what-you-want basis and all money raised from the sales goes to our 2WalkTo charities. More details about the charity EP tomorrow - but in the meantime here's the link to download: zoekonez.bandcamp.com/album/we-do-what-we-can

Lots has happened today. Did I forget to mention the amazing, beautiful and stunning scenery?!

Here are a few photos from Day 4...

Sponsorship update

Hello from New Alresford in Hampshire. It's day 4 of our walk!

We wanted to say the biggest thank you to everyone that has sponsored us and for all the amazing messages. 

So far we've raised nearly £1000 for our 2 charities, with plenty more pledges for when we finish the walk.

The sponsorship page stays open for a couple of months after we finish the walk.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/walktotnes

We've got badges to give you...

Day 1: London to Windsor

Starting in Brentford we picked up the Grand Union Canal and followed it pretty much all the way to Windsor.

We passed over some aqueducts, under some motorways and over quite a lot of railways. At one point we had all three bridges at once (railway below the canal and a road over the top).

We walked about 18 miles, to add to the first 10, so we're now 28 miles into the walk - over 10% of the total!  That makes it all seem quite a small amount, I'm sure we can do 10 times what we've just done.  Is that how it works?

In other news

These amazing handmade badges arrived thanks to Karen and Rupert, and we'll be able to give everyone who sponsors us or people we meet along the way one of these.

If you would like a badge please send us a message via the comments below, or Facebook or Twitter

Sponsorship update

The countdown to the walk is ticking! Just 2 weeks to go until we set off on this big adventure.

Sponsorship has been rolling in. The fundraising thermometer on the Virgin Money Giving sponsorship page is nearly at the half way mark.

It's great to see all the support for raising money for 2 really fantastic charities, and even though we set the fairly ambitious target of raising £1500 we think we'll get there.

A huge thank you to everyone that has sponsored us so far!

Keep in touch with our progress on our Facebook page and via Twitter

Training continues...

Just 3 weeks to go until we set off on our epic walk.

We've both bought new walking boots (hooray!).  The other day we took them out and initiated them with mud.

Richmond Park

Visiting Richmond Park for the first time is one of those "why have I never been here before" moments. It's easy to forget you're in London.  It felt more like being on Dartmoor than being in the city.

Our training walk took us from Richmond station through the town to the riverside. Climbing up the hill, we reached Richmond Park and followed a route we'd created using a new GPS route app.  Embracing the technology!

We didn''t spot any of Richmond Park's famous deer (perhaps we weren't looking in the right places). However we did see plenty of these noisy characters...

And should you want to fly model aircraft, apparently this is the place to do it... As long as you observe this board which looks like it has been there since the birth of flight.

 

What's this in aid of?

In 3 weeks time Will and Alex are embarking on a 250-mile walk from London to Devon in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support and RMH Bristol.  Find out why

Can you spare a few pounds?  Sponsor at Virgin Money Giving

Why are we doing this?

The main response I get when I tell people I'm doing a 250-mile charity walk is "Why?!"

In context I think they mean why the 250 miles, rather than why the charity walk.

Here are some reasons why we're doing it....

Time

It's going to take 12 days to complete a journey that can be done in under 3 hours by train, or under 4 hours by car.  It's a journey we've both done many times by car and train (we both have family and friends in Totnes so we go there a few times a year).  We both wanted to take "time out" from the pace of London living and do a trip which forces us to slow right down to only the speed our bodies can naturally carry us.  The journey becomes the destination.

People

We have already met some amazing people through organising the walk.  We've had offers of accommodation and practical help (see our post on Ways You Can Help if you're able to get involved). Though much of the walk will be on our own, we're sure it will be punctuated by meeting other walkers and great people along the way - it's part of the adventure.

Places

This walk will give us a new appreciation of the places between London and Totnes. We usually zoom straight through and don't have much idea about what lies between.  When you walk you see and learn infinitely more.  We're going to get to see places we never would have otherwise been to.  Check out our Route Plan.

To tread lightly on the planet

Doing something like this walk is quite self-indulgent. But it'll be a reminder that perhaps we don't need an increasingly fuel-guzzling and unsustainable way of life, moving us around at faster speeds.  We've both got green tendancies and the walk will hopefully inspire us to take a more active role in working towards a more environmentally sustainable way of life, both individually and out in the wider community.

Challenge

Neither of us are experienced long-distance walkers.  Doing something outside of the comfort zone and as a test of endurance is a great challenge. Sometimes it's important to simply drop all the "baggage" of everyday life and step into a different world for a few days.  In our case it's 12 days of steady walking which in itself is a physical challenge, but we've also got to try not to get lost (which for us is probably the biggest challenge!).

Giving back

It's a bit of a cliche, but the ultimate reason for the walk is we wanted to "give something back".  We're raising money for 2 fantastic charities which have helped us and our families in the recent past.  It's only fair that when we have drawn upon their resources that we draw upon our's to repay them and to ensure that others can benefit from the things the charities provide.  Read more about our charities and why we're supporting them on the Charities page.


If you'd like to sponsor our walk please visit uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/walktotnes and donate what you can.

Green chain walk

We have been exploring the Green (and in some places brown and muddy) Green Chain walk around south London.

Green Chain Walk

Friday's walk took us from Brixton to Eltham via Crystal Palace and Elmstead Woods.

We met quite an array of different wildlife on this walk, including ducks and dinosaurs, as you can see!

This was quite a hilly route and was good preparation for the hilly stretches of the walk.

We like company on our walks so feel free to join us for part of a training walk one day. Contact us for details.